USA10 July, 20262 min read
Marco Rubio Revokes Tou Lue Vang’s Legal Status After Minnesota Pardon, Deportation Follows
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked Tou Lue Vang’s legal status and ordered his deportation. Minnesota Governor Walz and the state Board of Pardons granted Vang a pardon.
Pardon, then deportation
Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian national living in Minnesota, was deported after Minnesota officials granted him an unconditional pardon for a 2006 criminal conviction for repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl. NewsNation reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a video message that Vang had been deported after Rubio revoked his legal status earlier this week, with the Department of Homeland Security blasting the pardon decision announced July 1.
The Guardian said Vang faced deportation for a 2006 conviction of first-degree criminal sexual conduct after raping a young girl between 2002 and 2004, and that he was detained in December 2025 during a massive immigration crackdown before a federal judge ordered his release from ICE custody in February 2026. In June, the Minnesota board of pardons granted the pardon after Vang expressed remorse and after a letter from his victim said she forgave him, and Rubio said, "This week I revoked his legal status in the United States and, as a result, federal agents took him into custody."
Rubio attacks Walz
Rubio framed the case as a threat to Americans, telling reporters, "Americans must never be forced by their elected leaders to live alongside foreign sex criminals who have no right to begin with to reside in our country."
The Department of Homeland Security said the pardon decision was "disgusting," and the Guardian reported that Walz’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
CBS News said Rubio announced Friday that he revoked Vang's legal status and that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested and deported him after Vang pleaded guilty in 2005 to sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl in a plea deal that kept him from going to prison.
CBS News also reported that the Minnesota Board of Pardons granted the pardon after Vang submitted a letter expressing regret for what he did, and that other family members and the victim wrote letters on his behalf.
What happens next
The Guardian reported that because Laos initially refused to accept deportees, Vang spent nearly two decades living in Minnesota, and it said the Trump administration used the case to accuse Tim Walz and other state Democratic officials of protecting immigrants from deportation. NewsNation said Vang was removed from the country Friday weeks after he was pardoned by a state clemency board that included Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Chief Supreme Court Justice Natalie Hudson.
In a statement cited by the Guardian, Lauren Bis called the pardon decision "disgusting," and the article said other Republican lawmakers, including Tom Emmer, also said they were angered by the ruling. The Guardian added that the Department of Homeland Security said Vang first came to the U.S. in 1994, that his status was revoked after his conviction, and that a final order of removal was issued in 2006.